April 2: Fools Rush In: A week of April Fool’s-inspired posts starts with one on fighting the good fight, Albion Tourgée, and A Fool’s Errand.
April 3: Seward’s Folly: On what we can learn from how, when, and why Alaska, Hawai’I, and Maine entered the U.S.
April 4: Melville’s Confidence Man: On the funny and significant American takeaways from Herman Melville’s complex satirical novel.
April 5: Nobody’s Fool: On some American Studies lessons from the funny and touching Paul Newman-starring film.
April 6: American Satire: The April Fool’s series ends with five great works of American satire from across the centuries.
April 7-8: March 2012 Recap: A belated recap of March on the blog.
April 9: Poems I Love, Part One: A National Poetry Month series kicks off with Randall Jarrell.
April 10: Poems I Love, Part Two: The series continues with my vote for most underrated American poet, Sarah Piatt.
April 11: Poems I Love, Part Three: Stephen Crane’s dark and cynical, yet perhaps still hopeful, entry in the series.
April 12: Poems I Love, Part Four: Joy Harjo and a poem that’s just pitch-perfect.
April 13: Poems I Love, Part Five: My amazing colleague and friend Ian Williams rounds out the week.
April 14-15: Taxing Poems: To follow up the week but also in honor of Tax Day, five more poems that’ll tax you in the best sense.
April 16: The Hard Way: In honor of Patriot’s Day, a repeat of one of my favorite posts, on George R.R. Martin and patriotism.
April 17: How Would a Patriot Act? Part One: A series on genuine American patriots kicks off with my 17th century nominee, Squanto.
April 18: How Would a Patriot Act? Part Two: An 18th century genuine American patriot, Quock Walker.
April 19: How Would a Patriot Act? Part Three: A 19th century genuine American patriot, Yung Wing.
April 20: How Would a Patriot Act? Part Four: A 20th century genuine American patriot, César Chávez.
April 21-22: How Would a Patriot Act? Part Five: A 21st century genuine American patriot, you!
April 23: Great American Stories, Part One: Joyce Carol Oates kicks off a series on great American short stories.
April 24: Great American Stories, Part Two: The week’s next great short story, courtesy of Jhumpa Lahiri.
April 25: Great American Stories, Part Three: Kate Chopin’s ambiguous, controversial, and sexy as hell entry in the week’s series.
April 26: Great American Stories, Part Four: Sui Sin Far’s tragic, biting, and deeply significant contribution to the series.
April 27: Great American Stories, Part Five: F. Scott Fitzgerald ends the week with a very representative and moving story.
April 28-29: Great American Writers, Right Now: Five talented, up-and-coming young writers who also happen to be students of mine at Fitchburg State University!
The week’s series starts tomorrow!
Ben
PS. Any subjects you’d like to see in this space? Or that you’d like to contribute guest posts on?
4/30 Memory Day Nominee: Muddy Waters, the blues and rhythm & blues guitarist and legend without whom rock and roll, popular music, and 20th century American culture would likely have been very different, and much less interesting.
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